How do you keep consistent spacing between text blocks when one expands?

Question

I'm creating a template for slide presentations and some presentation titles may go to two lines. How do set the spacing between the title and subtitle text boxes so that it will stay consistent (i.e. the subtitle box slides down) when the title is at two lines?

Answer 1

Other than writing an add-in to handle this sort of thing, the only way to do it is manually.

But another approach would be to allow enough room *above* the title placeholder for two lines, then set the placeholder's text box alignment to Bottom:

Select the text box

Rightclick, choose Format Shape

In the Format Shape dialog, click Text Box on the left

On the right, next to Vertical Alignment, choose Bottom.

This will cause the text box to grow UPWARD as more text is added, rather than downward, so it won't overwrite the subtitle text box.

Answer 2

Thanks. Unfortunately anchoring at the bottom doesn't work with the layout overall.

What makes this especially frustrating is that early-days PowerPoint DID have the functionality I'm talking about. Seems so universally useful you'd think they'd figure out some way to keep it.

Answer 3

My only issue with Steve's recommendation [the suggestion is fine, it's the need to use it that is the problem :-)] is that it occupies that space regardless of whether the Title requires it or not... That's the default setup for Title Slides btw. In a 50 slide deck with only a dozen having 2-line titles, though, that amounts to either a lot of wasted space or a lot of adjusting.

Another option to consider is creating separate Layout masters: one for 1-line Titles & a duplicate modified to accommodate 2-line Title Placeholders. It's a bit more work & makes the template file a smidgen larger but once the template is finished the only problem is getting users to use the correct layout... but having users do as intended usually is a challenge :-)